Desolation Row

Her sin is her lifelessness

For her I feel so afraid
And reciting the alphabet

On desolation row
She�s in charge of the cyanide hole
On desolation row
And fishermen hold flowers
When you asked me how I was doing

They�re spoon feeding Casanova
Here comes the blind commissioner
"Get outta here if you don�t know

As lady and I look out tonight
The circus is in town

Now he looked so immaculately frightful
Cinderella, she seems so easy
While Calypso's singers laugh at them

All except for Cain and Abel
And someone turns and says to him

Where lovely mermaids flow
Where the heart attack machine
The Titanic sails at dawn
Locked inside of his leather cup
Into desolation row
Now his nurse, some local loser
You would not think to look at him
To get him to feel more assured
Yes, I received your letter yesterday
About desolation row
To desolation row"

They�re trying to blow it up
The fortunetelling lady
And the superhuman crew
Is Cinderella sweeping up

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
And give them all another name

She also keeps the cards that read
Is brought down from the castles
To desolation row
And the phantom shouts to skinny girls
In a perfect image of a priest
And everybody�s shouting
Was that some kind of joke?
And the riot squad they�re restless
After the ambulances go
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
She wears an iron vest
The other is in his pants
She already is an old maid
Bette Davis style
And then the kerosene
Everyone is makin' love
From desolation row
All these people that you mention

He�s going to the carnival tonight
Her profession is her religion
If you lean your head out far enough
It takes one to know one, she smiles

Passed this way an hour ago
"Have mercy on his soul"
Right now I cannot read too well
That knows more than they do
Has even taken all her things inside
They�re getting ready for the feast
On her twenty-second birthday
"My friend you'd better leave"
Then they�ll kill him with self-confidence
Noah�s great rainbow
Ophelia, she�s �neath the window

Check to see that no one is escaping

She spends her time peeking

They need somewhere to go
And though her eyes are fixed upon
Then they bring them to the factory
For playing the electric violin
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
Yes, I know them, they�re quite lame
By insurance men who go

With his friend, some jealous monk
He�s getting ready for the show
Is strapped across their shoulders
I had to rearrange their faces
Now to her, death is quite romantic
"You belong to me I believe"
Between the windows of the sea
They all play on the penny whistle

From desolation row
Or else expecting rain
Praise be to Nero�s Neptune
Casanova he's just being punished for going

About the time the door knob broke
And puts her hands into her back pockets
But he was famous long ago
After poisoning him with words
As he bummed his cigarette
Not unless you mail them

Now the moon is almost hidden
You can hear them blow
They�ve got him in a trance

Now at midnight all the agents
Fighting in the captain�s tower
Across the street they�ve nailed the curtains
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
"Which side are you on?"
And in comes Romeo, he�s moaning
But all his sexless patients
And the only sound that�s left

And nobody has to think too much
Come out and round up everyone
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
The stars they're just pretending to hide
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Elliott
With his memories in a trunk
And the good Samaritan, he�s dressing
Don�t send me no more letters, no
On desolation row
The phantom of the opera